Mythology and Folklore: Week 6: Reading Diary A

Izanagi was king of heavens and Izanami the goddess of love.
Izanami gave birth to everything on the earth.
The sun and moon blossomed from a flower.
Inzanagi and Izanami gave birth to the eight islands of Japan. (Yamato, Iyo, Tsukushi, Tsushima, Ahaji, Shikoku, Oki, and Lado)
They then had a daughter (the Bright-Shining-Amaterasu) and a son (Susa-no-wo-no-mikoto)
Amaterasu was put in charge of the High Plain of Heaven and Susa-no-wo was given power over the Moon and the sea.
Humans were given godlike powers of wisdom, valor, justice, mercy, and love. The things that make us human!
Other gods were jealous of how much Izanami loved the mortals and she gave birth to the god of fire (Kagu-tsuchi) who was evil and the god of water to control his brother. Izanami then died and went to the spirit world of Yomi.

Amaterasu was sitting at the summit of Heaven when the Dragon of Hell, her brother Susa-no-wo appeared.
She fled her brother and his rage. Stayed in a cave for long time.
A mirror of gold was brought to Amaterasu and she believed it was a rival. As a result she left the cave and a stone was placed preventing her to return to the cave.

Susa-no-wo met a grieving parent and their child and asked why they were crying. They told him that they had lost eight daughters to an eight-forked serpent with many heads. They didn't want their daughter to die.
He turned their daughter into a comb and put her in his hair.
He placed bats in the path of the serpent which it drank and became drunk upon. It then fell asleep.
He cut the serpent into thousands of pieces and then retransformed the daughter (Kushinada-hime) into a woman and wedded her.

Yamato was the great-great-great-great grandson of Amaterasu.
He wanted to marry the princess Tacibana and she was kidnapped by a bandit.
He awakened in the temple of Ise and was given the sacred sword of Susa-no-wo to defeat the bandit. Yamato then dressed like a woman to enter the bandit's castle.
Yamato was with the bandit lord (Takeru) while he was drunk. He then killed him.
He saved the princess and then they married.

Mythology and Folklore